General Accident becomes CGU

This month, insurer General Accident will officially change its name to CGU Group Ltd. The Canadian operation will operate as CGU Insurance Company of Canada. According to head of corporate communications Diane Scott, the change harmonizes the Canadian name with the company’s worldwide brand, which has been operating under the CGU Group title since General Accident merged worldwide operations with Commercial Union in June 1998.

The Canadian brand name change is also the culmination of three very distinct corporate climates finally integrated together seamlessly into one company, says Scott, referring to General Accident, Commercial Union and Canadian General which was purchased by General Accident in 1997. “With the integration process, we’ve been very internally focused in terms of the immense change the company has gone through. Now we are able to turn our attentions outward, focusing on building relationships with new brokers and reinforcing existing relationships,” she says. “By bringing everybody together as one entity now – with one name instead of three – there are going to be some new things happening within the company.”

Scott notes CGU Group will engage in an aggressive marketing campaign to the broker community, with no plans yet to market the brand change to the general public, “our branding plan is to concentrate on our employees and the brokers, to make sure our message is fully understood in this community before taking it public”.